Arthur Harden Biography

Sir Arthur Harden was a famous English biochemist. He won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1929. This biography of Harden provides detailed information about his childhood, life, research, career, achievements and timeline.

Sir Arthur Harden was a famous English biochemist. He won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1929 for his work on the fermentation of sugar and the fermentative enzyme actions. The problem of the chemistry of yeast cell had always greatly intrigued him. His prior study of the action of light on mixtures of carbon dioxide and chlorine helped him apply these methods to the examination of the chemical action of bacteria and alcoholic fermentation. Harden studied the chemistry of the fermentation of sugar by yeast juice for over 20 years. This included the confirmation of Carl Neuberg’s discovery of carboxylase in yeast and the investigation of peroxidase and invertase. He also examined the role of inorganic salts in fermentation. This expanded the knowledge of intermediary metabolic processes and created a foundation for many biologists in similar fields. Harden also published papers on the antiscorbutic and antineuritic vitamins and their presence in food and drinks. He established the synthesis of the antiberiberi factor by yeast and by removing sugars, organic acids, and proteins from lemon juice, he prepared a concentrate with enhanced antiscorbutic activity that could treat infant scurvy. Throughout his career, he wrote and edited many chemistry textbooks. He also collaborated with Sir H. E. Roscoe in a study of Dalton’s notebooks.

Arthur Harden was born in Manchester, Lancashire, England, on October 12, 1865. His father was Albert Tyas Harden, a Manchester businessman and his mother was Eliza Macalister. He was the only son among eight daughters.

Harden maintained his family’s nonconformist and austere way of living throughout his life.

From 1873 to 1877, he was educated at a private school in Victoria Park.

For the next four years, he studied at Tettenhall College, Staffordshire.

In 1882, he entered The Owens College in the University of Manchester and started studying under Sir H.E. Roscoe.

Arthur Harden graduated in 1885 with a first-class honours in chemistry.

In 1886, he received the Dalton Scholarship in Chemistry and for the next one year, he worked with Otto Fischer at Erlangen.

In 1888, he received his doctorate degree. His dissertation was on the preparation and properties of β-nitrosonaphthylamine.

Arthur Harden worked with William John Young to show that the capacity of yeast juice to ferment glucose was influenced by the addition of boiled yeast juice. They also found that phosphate combined with glucose, fructose, or mannose forms a hexose diphosphate, which can be hydrolyzed by a phosphatase present in the juice. Harden’s identification of the presence of phosphate esters in fermentation liquors was significant as it directed the attention of other researchers to phosphorus compounds as intermediates in fermentation and muscular respiration.